MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AFP) -- The world's top billionaires, Bill Gates and Carlos Slim, will team up with the government of Spain in a 150-million dollar health initiative for poor people in Central America, including Belize, and Mexico, it was announced here on Monday.

Funds for the "2015 Meso-American Health Initiative" will be shared equally by the three contributors and will go over the next five years to improve maternal health, nutrition, vaccination, anti-dengue and anti-malaria campaigns in the region.

The initiative was announced here Monday by Gates, Slim, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Spain's Princess Cristina.

In additionb to Belize, the health initiative will be put to work in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama.

Gates said it was the first time his US-based Bill & Melinda Foundation has teamed up with Mexico's Carlos Slim Institute, but probably not the last.

Telecom mogul Slim, 50, topped Forbes magazine's world's richest list this year with a 53.5 billion dollar fortune. He bumped Gates, 54, to second place with 53 billion dollars.

"Today, we have been brought together by solidarity, the will to cooperate,and a joint commitment to the inhabitants of Central America and the entireMesoamerican region," he remarked.

At the National Museum of Anthropology and History, the Mexican Presidentdeclared that this is a shared effort by the Spanish government and theCarlos Slim and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations, which will contribute 150million, administered by the Inter-American Development Bank for thebenefit of over 10 million people threatened by preventable or curablediseases.

"The project has proved that it is a powerful instrument for promotingeconomic and social development and that it involves the joint work of thecountries in the region and of course, international cooperation," headded.

Accompanied by his wife Margarita Zavala, the President said that thisinitiative will contribute to fulfilling the Millennium DevelopmentObjectives, in four ways:

First. By fighting extreme poverty and hunger which will reduce childmalnutrition and anemia. The goal is to reduce the prevalence of lowstature from 30.5% to 25.5% and the incidence of anemia in children underfive from 32% to 23%.

Second. By reducing child mortality. The goal is to achieve universalvaccination coverage and reduce neonatal mortality by 30 per cent.

Third. By improving maternal health. The goal is to achieve the UNcommitment of reducing maternal mortality by 75% between 1990 and 2015.

Fourth. By reducing vector-borne diseases, in other words, thosetransmitted by the bites of insects such as mosquitoes. This will supportprograms to prevent, diagnose and treat cases of malaria and dengue. Thegoal is to reduce malaria control and halve the incidence of dengue inthese countries.

"I know that by combining efforts between the public and private sector,sharing responsibilities and utilizing the transforming power of humansolidarity, shared social responsibility and international cooperation, wewill build a better Mesoamerica, advance towards combating the povertysuffered by our people and above all, guarantee better access to healthconditions," Calderon said.

The event was attended by Princess Cristina of Spain; Bill Gates, of theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Carlos Slim-Helú, of the Carlos SlimFoundation. Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-AmericanDevelopment Bank; Marco Antonio Slim-Domit, President of the Carlos SlimHealth Institute; Trinidad Jiménez-García-Herrera, Spanish Minister ofHealth and Social Policy; and Mexico's Secretaries of Foreign Affairs,Patricia Espinosa, and Health, José Ángel Córdova.